00:00Quitting Wall Street was like a blessing.
00:02Technically you were kicked off forever.
00:06I'm dedicating my career to gun control.
00:10Specifically the abolishment of it.
00:12If Jesus had a gun, he'd be alive today.
00:21You know, I would love to star your character.
00:25Maurice reminds me so much of Marty Kahn
00:27and I was a huge House of Lies fan.
00:30So I'm curious, you know,
00:31when the opportunity for Black Monday came around,
00:33you know, were you looking to play another kind of,
00:36you know, outrageous, kind of immoral businessman
00:39or what was kind of your thought process?
00:42No, I wasn't actually looking to do it at all.
00:45It was something that David Nevins reached out to me
00:48and, you know, actually first he reached out and said,
00:50I have this thing that I'm doing
00:52that I don't think it's right for you.
00:53And I was like, are you calling me for...
00:56And then he called back later and he said,
00:58I actually think you're the perfect person to play it.
01:01So why don't you come in and meet Seth and Evan,
01:03Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg.
01:06And, you know, they are working with these two writers
01:09who created this, they bought the project,
01:11come and meet with them, see if you dig it.
01:13And, you know, we'll take it from there.
01:15So I came in and we met and talked about it
01:17and talked about ways to differentiate him from Marty
01:20and ways that he wasn't like Marty
01:21things that we could do to really sort of, you know,
01:24create this world with these different cast mates
01:27that we brought in with Regina and Paul and Andrew
01:29and everything.
01:30And I was like, yeah, let's do it.
01:31Let's go for it.
01:32Okay.
01:34And I had just talked to Regina and I'm like,
01:36your characters have such an interesting,
01:39complicated relationship.
01:40You know, how is it working with her and just seeing,
01:44you know, how your character is progressing
01:46and kind of regress off and on?
01:48She's the worst.
01:51No, I love Regina.
01:53Actually, when the casting opportunity came up,
01:56there were other actresses that they were looking at
01:58and they were going to go a different way with it.
02:01And I had just seen Regina.
02:05I don't even know of what award show it was.
02:07It may have been BET or Soul Train musical,
02:10some award show.
02:11I think she was giving an award with Sanaa.
02:14Okay.
02:15Who's her good friend.
02:16And they were just kind of riffing and messing around.
02:18And I was like, this chick is hilarious.
02:20I mean, I'd seen her in other things,
02:22but there was something just about the quality
02:24of the ease that she had when she was on that podium
02:27and just like talking to people in the audience
02:29and just riffing with Sanaa and coming back to it.
02:31I was like, this is the exact kind of tone
02:33that this show should have.
02:35Yeah.
02:36So I just told the producers, I was like,
02:38this is who you got to cast in this part.
02:41Okay.
02:41Oh, no.
02:42And I was like, oh, I know.
02:43I know.
02:45That's true.
02:46Yeah.
02:47And they did.
02:48And she, you know, came and just, you know,
02:50took the whole show to another level, clearly.
02:53Yeah.
02:53Yeah.
02:54And thinking about that, you know,
02:56you being an executive producer on this series,
02:58you know, when I talk to a lot of Black women actresses,
03:00they, you know, say they demand a seat at the table now,
03:03or, you know, they want producer credits as well
03:05and have that voice.
03:06How important is that to you, you know,
03:08as a Black man in Hollywood?
03:10Well, I think, you know, for me, it's interesting
03:13because I care less about the title and more about
03:17the actual gig.
03:19You know what I mean?
03:19Yeah.
03:20Because I know that's something that people fight over a lot
03:22in this town because it means something, I guess, on paper.
03:30And I guess it does.
03:31You get respected in a different way or seen in a different way
03:33or valued in a different way.
03:35But I just don't really care about that part of it.
03:38I care about the fact that you're showing up,
03:42you're a team player, you're going to be additive.
03:47Because I know a lot of, you know,
03:48we know a lot of people in this business just want the title
03:50and then they don't do anything.
03:51Yeah.
03:52So I want producers to produce.
03:54If you're going to be a producer,
03:56that means you've got to show and prove
03:58and you have to, you know, hold up your end
04:00and bring things to the table and be ideas.
04:05It's not just so that you can participate in the back end
04:08or, you know, be in the producer's pool.
04:10It's like you've got to do something, you know?
04:13So I take it very seriously.
04:14Regina takes it very seriously.
04:16Andrew's also a producer on the show.
04:17We're all, you know, take the gig seriously.
04:21And that's why it's important to me.
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